Thanksgiving

What a wonderful time. Since Chris had to work we waited for our turkey until Friday. Most of you probably know that we have sea food for Thanksgiving but this year was a little different. Since everyone is coming for Christmas we chose to hold off on the buttery shrimp scampi and crab legs until then. Mimi Pat, Uncle Teddy, Aunt Kathy, the girls, Chris, Mom and Dad, and of course me, all sat down to a scrumptious turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. That evening for desert Chris’s parents and his sister and family joined us for pie. After pie we sat around and just talked. It was nice and relaxing. For some reason doing Thanksgiving on Friday didn’t seem quiet as hectic as it does on Thursday. May it’s because we had another day to get ready. Mom everything was wonderful. Thanks so much for all of your hard work.

On Saturday and Sunday Mom and I decorated for Christmas. Kristin and the girls helped decorate the Christmas tree on Friday. They did a beautiful job. Chris went with the boys and Tricia quad riding and the girls went to Carole’s to play with their cousins and their ‘Ama. Thanks Carole for your help that day.

With all the decorating done it was time to close out our Thanksgiving weekend and head home. It was a good weekend filled with wonderful memories of family.

Family campout

This weekend was our family campout. We chose this weekend because we knew it would be getting rather cold soon and we wanted to try it out before we were away from home and it was to cold to run inside the house and warm up.

The girls had a wonderful time. They even got to show off their camper to friends. The Kempiak’s came over to have dinner and make smores with us tonight. The kids enjoyed eating in the trailer without the adults.

New Trailer.

Well we did it. We broke down and bought a trailer. Chris and I thought it was time that the girls experience a little of what we were able to experience as children. So we bought a popup trailer. It’s nice size. It has a king sized bed on one side and two doubles for the girls. We plan to have a family campout in the back yard next weekend.

Happy Halloween

The magic marshmallows worked. We planted and watered and in the morning . . . BINGO, two pumpkins, one large for Kristin and a smaller one for Jessica. It would have been larger but she ate half of her magic marshmallow before we were able to plant it. She had orange dripping down her face. Hopefully, a pumpkin doesn’t grow in her belly.

Last night Chris and I took the girls trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Kristin dressed up as Gabriella and Jessica an angel. They had a wonderful time. My mom and dad even showed up to join in the fun and they brought Cosmo to meet Dandy and to trick-or-treat with us. It was a great evening.

The Great Pumpkin

Well Halloween is almost here. I can’t believe it, only a few weeks ago it was the 4th of July. Only tonight did we (well really I) decorate. This year the Gilbert's started a new tradition, tonight; we “planted” magic marshmallows. If all goes as planned the marshmallows we “planted” should grow pumpkins tonight while we sleep. I guess we will find out in the morning if it actually worked. Thanks Kymberly for the idea. Not sure we did it correctly but if a pumpkin “grows” than I guess we did right.

I'll post pictures soon, I promise it won't take me a week and a half to do so. If I wait that long it will be Thanksgiving.

SLACKER

Ok so it’s official I’m a slacker. But I would like to say I have an excuse, not a good one but an excuse none the less. I’ve been busy. Still that’s no reason to update my blog. Well in the last week and a half a whole lot of nothing has happened in the Gilbert household. Ok that’s not exactly true. On October 22 we were able to pick up our new dog Dandy. Yes you read that right our new dog. If Corky were alive Dandy probably would have been the death of him. Why you might ask? Well because of all the breeds you can adopt now days we adopted a Queensland Blue Heeler. Yes, the same breed my parents have, the breed Corky use to argue with and lose too. Actually I think Corky would be fine with it, one because he could see how upset our oldest was at losing him and how happy Dandy makes her and two because we adopted her from the pound.

Dandy is a very sweet dog but busy. She has tried to play school with Jessica’s backpack (luckily we rescued it and the Monkey on the front) and she has played house with one of Kristin’s stuffed animals. Unfortunately we had to bury the stuffed animal (Dandy played a little too rough). She’s not to excited about her crate either, which she stays in when we are not home. She needs a lot of training but a good thing is, she’s potty trained and she is very good with both Kristin and Jessica. So far she has been a good dog and we try and keep her busy. Ask me again when the honeymoon period has warn off and we want to change her name to PIMA (Pain In My A--).

Apparently Jessica likes to walk Dandy by her tail.

A New Challenge

Ok, so Chris and I have not worked as much or as often as we should have to teach Kristin to ride her bike. I thought I would try tackling bike riding with Kristin. Something we should have done a few years ago. My principal said that she had a video that helped all three of her children to ride their bikes called “Peddle Magic”. The video claims it can help you teach someone to ride a bike in about 5 minutes. Yeah right, or so I thought. Yesterday evening I took Kristin to AJ High School and their empty parking lot and in about 5 minutes she was riding all over the lot. She was turning and braking and starting all on her own. As a mother I was so proud of her, but I was also petrified that she would wreck and get hurt. I know that eventually that will happen and all kids have to experience scraped knees as well as bumps and bruises, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. Anybody have bubble wrap I can borrow?

Congratulations Kristin!!! Daddy, Mommy and Jessica are very proud of you !!!!!